These workers install, operate, tend, and test furnaces in order to produce specific types of steel or melt and refine metal before casting. This includes coal, gas, electric, open-hearth or oxygen furnaces. To be considered for this position, completion of high school or its equivalency is usually necessary. Once hired, an employer usually requires up to a year of formal on-site job training before an employee can start work.

A Metal-Refining Furnace Operator or Tender will normally receive an average compensation of between 32000 and 48000 depending on the level of education. Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders receive an average compensation of Forty Thousand One Hundred dollars per year.

Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders make the greatest compensation in Nebraska, which has wages of close to about $67330. People with these jobs can make the most money in Manufacturing, where they can get average pay scales of $43440.